Emergency Service Not At Subdivision

Residents Call For Paved Roads

CHARLES CITY (COUNTY) — Residents of the Forest Acres subdivision complained to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday night that the area has gone too long without access to their homes via paved roads.

They said they are isolated from emergency services financed with taxpayer money.

Judy Clark, a spokeswoman for the residents, said the only access to the area is on a dirt road called a fire trail, which intersects Route 106.

But ironically, the road includes a bridge so narrow and flimsy the Providence Forge Rescue Squad and the Charles City Fire Department will not take their vehicles across it to get to the houses.

Many residents moved to the subdivision in the northwest part of the county on the promise that the developer would pave a road. The promise was not kept, residents said. Clark said the county should urge the Virginia Department of Transportation to pave the road the residents feel they are entitled to.

"Even though taxes go up every year, the value of property goes down because of that road," Clark told the supervisors.

"Y'all got into that when you built your home there," responded C. Hill Carter Jr., who represents the district including Forest Acres. "I'm sorry to have to say that."

Outside the meeting room, Clark's husband, Edwin, said although the developer reneged on his promise to build a road, the county shares some of the blame. The county should have withheld a permit to build until it was assured that emergency access to and from the development was provided.

"I don't think they should issue any more building permits until the road is paved," he said.

Carter said later that the subdivision, which has about 25 houses, includes five-acre lots and there were and are no laws to prevent subdivisions like it from being built even if emergency entry and exit are inadequate.

In an unrelated matter, the supervisors consummated the $10,000 sale of a Roxbury Industrial Center lot to Quin Rivers Community Action Agency. The non-profit private social services agency will begin operating a day-care center for up to 100 children in August, said Executive Director Robert Rollins.

At a weekly fee of $58, the center will target preschoolers, including infants, a group often left out of day-care center plans, Rollins said.

A structure estimated to cost about $250,000 to build is expected to be open by August. Under the terms of the sale, employees of the Roxbury center firms will be given priority in the allocation of space there.